2007 RPG of the Year

Again, the editorial team selected the field based on community interest to keep the list manageable. Here's a summary of the candidates…

The Witcher

It was a long time in development but The Witcher was worth the wait – even scoring 5/5 in our review. Responses from other critics have been mixed but the player response has been overwhelmingly positive. There are issues with the translation and limitations with the engine but The Witcher creates a compelling gameworld full of bitter conflict and weaves an intricate tale around the player’s choices.

NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer

Arguably the best D&D campaign for many years and certainly some of the best dialogue since Planescape: Torment. The NWN2 platform still has some frustrations but this is a much more polished release with an intriguing story full of choices, as well as new races and inclusions for D&D aficionados.

Two Worlds

The original release was a disaster but Reality Pump worked hard, improving and adding to Two Worlds over and over. The NA, UK and AU releases at v1.5 were much more mature and this open world action/RPG gathered quite a few fans. Opinions were split in our review but it definitely has some passionate fans.

Hellgate: London

Has there ever been a case of pre-release hype and anticipation turned around so quickly? Did Hellgate: London suffer a backlash from fallout over the subscription model and the “from the creator’s of Diablo” hype? After some time for the dust to settle, it will be interesting to see how just how our readers see HG:L in this poll.

Mass Effect

BioWare’s epic space opera has been lauded by the critics and been a strong contender in Game of the Year polls elsewhere, although our readership is more PC-oriented. The cinematic dialogue has won awards for innovation and BioWare is famed for their story-telling.

Eschalon: Book 1

Eschalon won our Indie RPG of the Year poll in a landslide – how will it fare against big-budget competition?

The Witcher for me since the only other ones I have played are Two Worlds and Hellgate: London (beta tester) and I don't really like Hellgate: London and Two Worlds is alright but not good enough for game of the year.

Even though I haven't played the other games I probably would have still voted for The Witcher since it is the best new game I have played in nearly a decade.

Definitely the Witcher. I disliked MotB (high level DnD is not something I enjoy), though it does have a strong story. Two Worlds and Hellgate are too arcadey to compete with the others, and Eschalon, while good, isn't that good.

Don't see why Mass Effect is in there, anyway - I thought this was a PC gaming site.

I voted for MotB, since it's the first D&D game that felt like a proper D&D game since BG2 and IWD2. It's got all the options (characters, classes, stats), the good story, and the interesting followers needed to make it a proper D&D adventure.

For me, personally, it has a higher replayvalue than The Witcher due to all the options - what character you make defines the gameplay. In The Witcher, the only "real" choices are those made in quests, the character will always be a swordfighter and will always use the same forms on the same monsters, meaning the gameplay has very little variety (i.e fast silver form on dodging monsters, strong steel form on heavy humans, etc).

The Witcher is a clear 2nd though, but I doubt I am going to play all the way through it more than a few times.

Haven't played Mass Effect since I don't own a 360 yet, so that one didn't have any effect on my choice.

I'd be torn between Two Worlds, Eschalon Book 1 & Mask of the Betrayer for 2nd place though. Each is good/fun in it's own way. I think Hellgate is piece of poo (i'm sure plenty of folks like it though) so it would be a very, very distant last place (behind the game I haven't even played).

The Witcher. I would have put Puzzle Quest second (if such an option was present) since it has far more proper RPG elements than some of the titles in the poll. NWN2 and Eschalon Book I would tie for the third in my short list this year.

I really enjoyed Two Worlds… it was a blast… but I had to vote for The Witcher. I am nowhere near finishing it yet, but it's on a completely different level than the rest of those games (just my opinion)… so, The Witcher it is.